SPRING: Sustainable Programme Incorporating Nutrition & Games

Project Summary 

A large number of children in developing countries lack access to known effective interventions. Almost 9 million die each year before reaching their fifth birthday, and over 200 million children who survive fail to achieve their full growth or developmental potential, trapping them in a cycle of continuing disadvantage.

The goal of SPRING, Sustainable Programme Incorporating Nutrition & Games, is to develop an innovative, feasible, affordable and sustainable community-based approach that can achieve delivery at scale of known effective interventions that will maximise child development, growth and survival.

SPRING will be delivered by community based agents through home visits during pregnancy, immediately post birth, the postpartum period and infancy.

Key Project Information

Dates: 1 April 2011 - 31 March 2016

Principal Investigator: Dr Zelee Hill

Partners: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; University of Liverpool; HDRF (Human Development Research Foundation), Pakistan; Sangath, India.

Location: India and Pakistan

Funding: Wellcome Trust

Contact: z.hill@ucl.ac.uk

Website: www.lshtm.ac.uk/spring

Publications

Zafar S, Sikander S, Haq Z, Hill Z, Lingam R, Skordis-Worrall J, Hafeez A, Kirkwood B, Rahman A. Integrating maternal psychosocial well-being into a child-development intervention: the five-pillars approach. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2014 Jan;1308(1):107-17.

Lingam R, Gupta P, Zafar S, Hill Z, Yousafzai A, Iyengar S, Sikander S, Haq ZU, Mehta S, Skordis-Worrel J, Rahman A, Kirkwood B.Understanding care and feeding practices: building blocks for a sustainable intervention in India and Pakistan. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2014 Jan;1308(1):204-17

Batura, N., Hill, Z., Haghparast-Bidgoli, H., Lingam, R., Colbourn, T., Kim, S., ... & Skordis-Worrall, J. (2014). Highlighting the evidence gap: how cost-effective are interventions to improve early childhood nutrition and development?. Health policy and planning, czu055.